1961 Olds Starfire - The Aladdin

CONSISTENCY. In the realm of custom creations, there are plenty of hits and misses. When reshaping the already beautiful silhouette inherent to most vintage steel, it’s easy to disrupt the essential flow and harmony of the factory lines. We’re not all Harley Earl. Even the big names have their off designs, but some have a better batting average than others. Swinging his way up to the top of the pool for consistency in elegance and style is John D’Agostino. The man has left a trail of customs to be envied: Midnight Sensation, Golden Sunrise, Royal Tahitian, Gable, Golden Star, Marilyn, and Stardust to name a few of our favorites. The list speaks for itself. If those names aren’t familiar, you’re not into customs.

John is very hands-on with his cars; he is the man with the vision who knows what he likes and knows how to bring together the right artists to create showstoppers. Bill Hines, Art Himsl, Frank DeRosa, Oz Customs—the builders he conspires with are legends in the customizing world.

John is also unswerving about style. From his first two-tone Royal Triton Purple-and-white ’56 sprayed by Frank DeRosa [Pittsburg, California] that he drove in high school to his mild pearl white and gold ’63 Pontiac Grand Prix college car, replete with a 45-rpm record player, John has never varied from traditional-style customs. Even through the dark decades of the ’70s and ’80s, when traditional was old news, he stayed true. Billet and Easter-egg monotones just didn’t appeal to him.

Though a little bit new for a custom, it was his Art Himsl–painted ’70 Pontiac Grand Prix that really put his style on the map. At the ’70 Oakland Roadster Show, the smoothed candy gold and tangerine G-Body won Outstanding Custom. That was also the debut of D’Agostino’s trademark chrome wire wheels. From there, it was one sensation after another.

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While his typical medium of choice usually stems from sumptuous cars like pre-’60s Caddies, Mercs, and Lincolns, this magical beauty known as Aladdin isn’t D’Agostino’s first foray into the world of later-style customs. With a ’64 Dynamic 88 dubbed the Venetian, and a surprisingly simple but stunning ’61 Olds known as the Golden Starfire already under his belt, John wasn’t diving into uncharted territory.

So why the shift from the dramatic swoops and curves of ’40s and ’50s steel to the relatively conservative lines of ’60s Oldsmobiles? To prove that minor alterations paired with the right paint could transform the even most sedate look-right-past-’em cars into something that can’t be ignored. John likes to show that with the right execution, you can make just about anything cool.

The uncomplicated execution of Golden Starfire turned out so well that John decided he wanted to try the same tactic with a convertible. The gods of chop and lead must have liked the idea, as the right car was practically dropped in his lap. While at the Goodguys All-American Get Together in Pleasanton, California, displaying his devastatingly well-executed ’57 Olds known as Golden Star, John was roaming around the swap meet area when he noticed a grandma’s garage fresh ’61 Starfire ’vert on a trailer headed into the meet. He didn’t waste a moment; he made a beeline for it. Before the owner had a chance to pull into place and display the Olds, John stopped him, introduced himself, got out his checkbook, and bought it. Not a moment too soon either, because there were a half dozen vultures right behind him that would have swooped in had he hesitated.

Later, after closer inspection, John saw his instincts were spot-on; the car was a rust-free, low-mileage, Southern Cali car still wearing the original black plates. A perfect pallet to create a ’60s-style luxury custom convertible. John had his vision in mind: a transformation from disregarded street rat to revered royalty with the aid of a little restyling magic—like an automotive Aladdin. To begin the makeover, John wasted no time in getting the Olds down to Long Beach, California, and into the hands of Bill Hines, a recurrent collaborator on many of John’s cars. Think of him as the genie in the story.

The theme for this build could be summed up as “less is more.” There was to be no major sheetmetal surgery or radical reshaping—just a refining and tweaking of what was already there to create the illusion that much more had been done. However, to get the right profile the top had to come down. You think chopping a hardtop is difficult? Try cutting and re-engineering one that has to be able to retract. However, at Bill’s hand, the convertible frame was reworked and brought down 4 inches, all while maintaining factory functionality. The plan for the body was to keep it essentially stock appearing but with a multitude of subtle custom mods by Bill, executed in his signature leadwork. From there the Olds was sent to rising stars Oz and Kyle Welch at Oz Kustoms in Oroville, California. There the windshield was cut down to size and the suspension was exchanged for Air Ride Technologies airbags front and rear. Oz also applied the custom House of Kolor Candy Apple Red with generous amounts of metalflake on the hood and trunk. With the right facade, the plebeian Olds was appearing far more aristocratic.

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A ’61 Oldsmobile Starfire convertible may be atypical fodder for a traditional-style custom, but once completed, its reception in the custom world was typical of a D’Agostino car. Aladdin debuted at the San Francisco Rod and Custom show and easily took First Place in the radical custom class and then repeated the performance at the Grand National Roadster Show, Sacramento Autorama, and Fresno Invitational. Certainly a high-water mark for an uninteresting ’61 Olds, but it’s just par for the course for John D’Agostino.